Premium
LOCAL STATUS AND NATIONAL SOCIAL WELFARE
Author(s) -
Persky Joseph,
Tam MoYin
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1467-9787
pISSN - 0022-4146
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9787.1990.tb00094.x
Subject(s) - welfare , gini coefficient , interpretation (philosophy) , distribution (mathematics) , standard of living , index (typography) , perception , demographic economics , inequality , geography , public economics , economics , psychology , economic inequality , mathematics , market economy , mathematical analysis , neuroscience , world wide web , computer science , programming language
Perceptions of individual well‐being are influenced by local status, i.e., one's place in the income distribution of one's reference group. In general, reference groups are smaller than the entire nation. If national social welfare is an aggregate of individual's well‐being, then it is not symmetric with respect to all individuals. A geographical interpretation of reference groups means that the welfare of a family living in one region is only influenced by other families in that region. An empirical application, using states, shows that a Gini index modified to reflect local status showed much less improvement 1949‐1979 than did the standard Gini.